OCHRE provides a built-in virtual keyboard that allows users to pick special characters from a palette to be dropped into the currently active text field. Click the F icon from the main toolbar to expose the Keyboard pick-list. Choose the required Keyboard and toggle it visible or not visible using the Keyboard button. Hold the Shift key to get the uppercase version of the character where appropriate. Rollover the character to see the keyboard shortcut displayed below the keyboard.

Some of the commonly used characters can be entered on a Mac using a predictable pattern of keystrokes that makes it easy to remember the keyboard shortcuts. OCHRE has adopted the same shortcuts used by the Mac OS to avoid confusion. These common sequences are summarized here:

The recent versions of Mac OS X provide some other built-in features and shortcuts to facilitate entry of special characters. In particular, if you depress and hold a character, a window will pop up showing accented variations of the character. Click on the required character and it will drop into the currently active OCHRE text field.